Hiring Salespeople - Watch Out for Yourself

Approximate reading time: 3m 38s

How to avoid hiring the wrong people as salespeople: how do you find out whether this person can really do the job?

Are you familiar with the problem of hiring salespeople? No? The problem is that, as salespeople, they are good at convincing the sales manager that they can do things they cannot do.

This happens because sales managers are often under pressure to fill positions and meet sales targets, and they let themselves be guided by emotions and biases when hiring salespeople without even realizing it.

As a result, sales managers often hire unsuitable or unqualified candidates whom they will have to replace after only a few months. This is both a failure and a black mark on their reputation and judgment.

  Course “Interviewing Skills”.

It is one thing to want, another to be able, and a third and fourth to do it, as writer Nikolay Haytov said. That is why, when a sales manager is selecting salespeople, they must be able to recognize those who are pretending from those who can really sell or are experienced enough for the position.

Let us consider the following scenario:

For three months now, you have had an open position for a welding robot salesperson and the situation truly cannot wait. At last, you receive a suitable application from a person, let us call him Ivo, who has worked for two manufacturers. Ivo has the engineering experience required for your vacant position. He also has good recommendations from his previous sales managers. You start thinking hopefully: „We found our person.“

Unfortunately, you are in the greatest danger when conducting the interview. Why? You want to hire someone for the position so much that this strong desire and urgent need for a salesperson can mislead you. Ivo may seem like the ideal salesperson both on paper and in person - smart, educated, confident. You want so much for him to be able to do the job that you avoid asking him difficult questions so as not to trip him up and realize that he is not suitable for the salesperson role and that you will have to start the search again.

Psychologists call this confirmation bias. It is people’s tendency to give priority to information that confirms their prior concepts or hypotheses, regardless of whether the information is true. As a result, people selectively gather and recall information, interpreting it in a way determined by their own personal preferences and inclinations. 

In a study by the University of Missouri, researchers analyzed recorded job interviews by three interviewers at a large corporation. They found that when interviewers had a good first impression of candidates, they asked fewer questions about their qualifications. Instead, they praised their company in an effort to “sell” it to the candidate so that the candidate would want to work for them. This is an example of a poor hiring decision.

So, you go to interview Ivo for the welding robot salesperson position. It is a good idea to think about 2 things: 1) what data you have gathered from his CV - what experience, education, and qualifications he has, and 2) what you will want him to do for your company – the goals you want him to achieve.

If Ivo is an impostor, he would focus on the data from the CV, his education, and his experience. These people do not want to be questioned at length about the results they have achieved. But that is exactly what you need to do by digging into two topics: responsibility and knowledge.

First, it is a good idea to find out whether, as a salesperson, Ivo was responsible for closing deals. For your job, you need someone who can close complex sales by convincing multiple buyers and turning them into customers.
To determine whether Ivo has done this, you can use the Responsibility Drill Down technique. Here is how this technique works.

The interview conversation

You: „Have you negotiated with clients when you had to win the trust of multiple participants, including top executives?“

Ivo: „Yes.“

You: „Tell me about one such deal.“

Ivo: „I signed a five-million-dollar contract with HP. We had to convince the CEO, the CFO, and the operations manager that our product was superior to the products of two competitors.“

You: „Did you personally initiate the contacts and lead the presentations with these people?“

Ivo: „I had a key role.“

You: „Did your sales manager also participate?“

Ivo: "Yes."

You: „So he was mainly responsible for closing the sale?

Ivo: „Technically, yes.“

and then, in your head, a "Red Flag" should appear or you should enroll in our training "Interviewing Skills"

With just 5 probing questions, you found out that Ivo did not make the sale himself. His sales manager did.

Does this mean that Ivo is not qualified to do the job you are looking to fill? Not necessarily. But the way he presents his level of responsibility should warn you and signal a red flag.

The next step is to check Ivo’s level of knowledge, as well as whether he knows what is necessary for the job you are about to hire him for. You can use the same technique by asking questions that dig deeper into the answers to the previous question. That way you will find out either that he has the necessary knowledge or that he will reveal that he does not know what is required.

Final advice: No matter how much you need the salesperson and how strongly you want to fill the empty chair on your team, do not give in to your desire; instead, check the data the candidate has described, as well as their experience and responsibilities. Take the time to prepare questions that only a qualified candidate will be able to answer. That way you will be able to find your sales person.

 Academy “Personal Selling Techniques”